Setting Objectives for your Video Distribution Strategy

Thursday 6th September 2018

Any strategy needs to start with an objective.

Without an objective in place, you can’t set KPIs, and as you’ll see below, these are critical determining the content and form of your video – and measuring its impact. It’s therefore highly advisable to set SMART goals before you get started.

At TopLine, we’ve produced over 1,500 videos. These are just some of the types of objectives we have worked with:

Generate more leads.

Increase brand recognition.

Attract more and better job applications.

Get noticed by a particular audience.

Drive website conversions.

Raise finance.

Reduce calls to the customer service centre.

Rank highly for a certain keyword on Google.

Raise awareness of a particular issue or problem.

Position the company as a thought leader.

Change a behaviour.

Onboard an employee.

Onboard a customer.

Train a new employee.

Record an event.

Drive event registrations.

Increase customer referrals.

All of these objectives were also SMART goals. Don’t get started without one.

Once you’ve set your objectives, set your KPIs

Knowing your objectives is one thing: KPIs let you know whether you’re achieving them. They’re the ‘M’ in your smart goal, and they’re a pillar of any worthwhile distribution strategy.

Some typical video KPIs you would measure include:

Watch time. How long are your viewers sticking with your video?

How many people are watching your video?

View through rate. What’s the number of views divided by the number of impressions?

Subscribers to your channel. How many people are signed up to watch your content – and how has a new video impacted this number?

But in our experience many of these KPIs won’t be directly relevant to your objectives. At TopLine, we try to focus on KPIs that drive meaningful action: if your goal is to generate leads, then your KPI needs to include leads; if it’s increasing signups, then you need to look at new user registrations every month.

Whatever your KPIs, they should follow this basic format. You can get a million likes, shares, and comments, but they won’t mean anything if they don’t correspond with action.